Instructor / Lectures

• Instructor: Jason Filippou (jasonfil@cs.umd.edu)
• Office hours: Wed 1-5pm, IRB2206
• Lectures:
  • 010x: TuTh 2:00-3:15pm, IRB 0324
  • 020x: TuTh 11:00 - 12:15, ESJ (not IRB!) 0202
  • 030x: TuTh 3:30 - 04:45pm, IRB (not ESJ!) 0324

 

Office Hours are the most direct way to reach the instructor. E-mail / ELMS messages might take a few days to answer because of the instructor's extreme email load. Please be patient; all questions / concerns get answered, some with higher latency than others.

 

Topics

The following is a list of topics that we intend to cover. 

• Logic
  
  • Propositional Logic
  • Circuits
  • Number bases
  • Predicates and quantifiers
• Set Theory 
  • Basic definitions
  • Powerset, Cartesian Product
• Number Theory and Proof techniques
  • Definitions  (parity, divisibility, modular arithmetic, prime factorization, floor / ceiling, rationality, ....).
  • Proof strategies (direct, indirect, universal and existential statements)
  • Famous proofs and open problems
• Induction
  • Mathematical (weak, strong)
  • Constructive
• Combinatorics
  • Permutations, combinations
  • Binomial Theorem, Pascal's Triangle, combinatorial proofs
  • Elementary discrete probability, conditional probability, Bayes Theorem
• Optional (as time allows)
  
  • "Big-oh" () notation
  • Functions, Relations

 

Discussion Sessions, Tutors, Graders, Office Hours

Please navigate this link for a dynamically edited Google spreadsheet which will clarify everything for you.

 

Assignments

Weekly homeworks

There will be 1 (one) homework given out every week, on Mondays, with the exception of the first week and major exam weeks. This means that we are projecting 12 (twelve) homeworks this semester. They will be uploaded on Gradescope, with a regular deadline of 1 week (so, the following Tuesday midnight) and 2 (two) more days for 50% credit. Your lowest graded homework will be dropped for grading purposes. Homework solutions will be posted after the late deadline is through. Total Weight: 15%. (so, with 11 hws counted for grading, about 1.634% each). Regrade request period on Gradescope: 2 days

 

Small exams every fourth discussion session

Starting from the third discussion session of 02-05 (since Monday 01-27 did not have a discussion), and for every fourth discussion session afterwards, you will have short exams (designed for 30-40 minutes) during your allotted discussion.  Rules:

• • Those are still "Major Assessments", so you will need to be able to document  your absence (see below as per what an appropriate "documentation" is). If you do, your absence gets excused (i.e you don't get a zero for your absence on ELMS). Absolutely no make-ups for these small exams will be provided; you can only have an absence excused if you adequately document it; you cannot make that exam up at a later date / time. Please be careful with excused absences from these assessments because losing many of those will make your average over those exams very "swingy" (i.e mistakes in the exams you actually do sit for will count for more points lost).
  • YOU NEED TO BE IN YOUR OWN ACTUAL ALLOTTED DISCUSSION TO SIT FOR THOSE EXAMS!
  • Your bottom grade among the discussions that you actually sit for will be dropped for grading purposes.

          Dates of these exams (seven total): 02-05 (3rd discussion) , 02-19, 03-04,  03-25 (after Springbreak), 04-08, 04-22, 05-06.

          Total weight: 15% (so 2.142% each) Regrade request period on Gradescope: 2 days

 

Large exams (Midterms/Final)

Dates / Times, weights and room distributions are as follows:

• • Midterm #1: Wed 03-11, 6 (six) to 8 (eight) PM, in ESJ (not IRB!) rooms:
    
    • 010x: ESJ0202 (zero, two, zero, two)
    • 020x: ESJ0224 (zero, two, two, four)
    • 030x: ESJ1202 (one, two, zero, two)

Weight:20%. ADS tests / makeups are honored ONLY WHEN BEGINNING THE DAY OF THE EXAM AND EXTENDING UP TO 1 WEEK (SEVEN DAYS) AFTER THE EXAM PROPER. Gradescope regrade requests: 1 full week (seven days) after we release grades.

• • Midterm #2: Wed 04-15, 6 (six) to 8 (eight) PM. Same room distribution and ADS/makeup/regrade request rules as above. Weight: 23%.
  • Final exam:  Saturday 05-16 from 4 (four) to 6 (six) pm(not between six and eight PM like the midterms!). Room distribution TBD mid-semester. CHANGE IN MAKEUP & ADS RULES: INSTEAD OF ONE WEEK FOR MAKEUPS / ADS EXAMS, YOU NOW HAVE TWO WORKING DAYS (Mon-Fri). We need to submit final grades fast for subsequent semester registration purposes, and we appreciate your understanding. Weight: 27%

        These are of course major assignments as well, so absences need to be appropriately documented, as mentioned above and clarified below. If you can't make it to a midterm, please contact our head TAs so that you can be helped with a makeup midterm date. Note that, to preserve the integrity of the exam, makeup and ADS subjects will be slightly altered. Regrade request period on Gradescope: 1 week (7 days) for midterms, 2 days for final.

 

Gradescope

1. We only allow PDF format for the uploading of your homework assignments, which are uploaded on our Gradescope page . You have already been transferred to our Gradescope page automatically;  use your Directory ID and password to log-in. The  description will be supplied in PDF format, which you will need to print. A very generous amount of homeworks will be printed outside the instructor's office for you to pick up when  homeworks go out, so in all likelihood you won't even need to find a printer.  YOU SHOULD WRITE YOUR ANSWERS ON THE ACTUAL HOMEWORK PAGES (i.e, do not write them on separate sheets which you then attach to the homework questions, or even without attaching them). You need to fill in the provided answer space with your answers exactly where we require them. IF YOUR ANSWERS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GRADE YOUR HOMEWORK!
2. If from what you claim in your regrade request it seems you know LESS than we thought you can lose points. Here are two characteristic examples that really happened:

(a) The problem asks for a prime between 50 and 60. The students answers 57 and gets a 0 (3 divides 57).The student's regrade request argues that 57 IS a prime and hence he deserves credit. He LOST 5 additional points, since 57 is not a prime 

(b) The problem asks for a quantifier statement that is true in the integers but not in the naturals.The student writes:

This is incorrect- its true in . The instructors had been incorrect in assuming it was a misread; the student proved to us that they knew less than what we thought.

To further clarify, this policy applies only if you claim a regrade request with an argument that is mathematically false (given what you already know in the class). It is not a deterrent for requesting a regrade if you yourself feel that you were unfairly graded (as long as your claim isn't mathematically invalid). Depending on the rubric used, you may or may not get points back from your request, but you will not be penalized for making the request as long as you don't claim something mathematically invalid, like in the examples above. You just might not get extra points.

 

CampusWire

This semester we will be using CampusWire for our dynamic communications. CampusWire is a relatively new platform for in-class communications which blends features from Piazza, Slack, Reddit and Stack Overflow to offer a modern, engaging, and responsive platform for us to communicate. You can find some slides from a Fall 2019 Education Committee meeting comparing CampusWire to Piazza as a PPTX (the generated PDF was unfortunately too large). Some of the Piazza issues mentioned in those slides have since been addressed, and if we have any issues with CampusWire it will be very easy to fall back to a Piazza forum that the instructor will create.

To join our CampusWire instance, please make a free account on campuswire.com and then join our page by clicking on this link and entering the code 2733 (two, seven, three, three).

 

University Course-Related Policies

The University has packaged certain campus-wide "course-related policies" into a single centralized webpage. Every course is required to link to these policies, which cover very important elements such as:

• Excused absences (what are your rights, what are our responsibilities), including dates of projected religious observance.
• Disability accommodations on campus
• Code of Student Conduct and matters pertaining to Academic Integrity.
• Grade contesting.
• Mid-Term ("Early Warning") grades

 

Textbook

The following textbook is recommended, yet not required.

Susanna Epp, Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 5th edition Cengage, ISBN-13: 978-0495391326

To reiterate, in no way do we require that you purchase the 5th edition of the book new (the cost of the hardcover can go all the way up to $350 through online retailers like Amazon). In fact, we do not even require that you purchase the textbook: it is a fantastic resource for practice, yet we will be providing you with all materials you will need. Consult the University Bookstore for more options. Of those options, another excellent (and a bit harder!) option is: Kenneth Rosen, Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, 8th Edition, McGraw Hill, ISBN-13: 978-1259676512

 

Iribe Initiative Tutoring

        The Iribe Initiative for Inclusion & Diversity in Computing offers both 1:1 and Guided Study Session (GSS) tutoring for CMSC 131, 132, 216, 250, 330, and 351 around specific concepts discussed in class.  To learn more and request tutoring, please visit: https://inclusion.cs.umd.edu/programs/#tutoring.

 

Web accessibility

Please navigate this official UMD accessibility link for the full spectrum of accessibility information in the UMD campus. ELMS-Canvas is highly tuned towards accessibility, offering automatic link checking, suggested color palettes, standardized HTML for screen readers, and so on and so forth. The course staff takes accessibility issues quite seriously; please e-mail us if you feel you would like some further assistance with accessing our course materials. Also, please go through this ELMS student orientation if you'd like some information about using the system.